I think most members of this community sometimes procrastinate on various other forums and websites about language learning too. We all know it is wrong, that we are unlikely to find better info than already gathered around here (I know that sounds bad, said just like this, but it is unfortunately true), and that we should put that time into our anki reviews or another couple of book pages instead.
But there are times these websites heal me from the "craving" for some time. I think we have all seen sites like the Duolingo forums, that are simply not worth digging in for the very low % of valuable threads for a bit more experienced learners. And no, it doesn't make a difference answering people other stuff than "do the reverse tree and just speak!"
And I can say that most communities I've seen over the years were similar in some ways.
Language blogs are of various quality and in general better than the forums, especially once I find something great (the mezzofanti guild or ajatt taught me a lot), but than there is Benny, the Irish Polyglot. That is the impuls for writing this post. I think I don't need to repeat the pros and cons of his approach and the admiration and at the same time cautions approach to his success stories. But the even more confusing part are the other contributors. Again, there is actually some very good stuff there, than some typical and boring stuff I don't need to click on, but today it took me just a few minutes to accidentally find a pearl
How I Learned to Speak Mandarin Chinese while Living in Kansas, that sounded good.
I am dreaming of learning a very exotic language one day, and I am always on the lookout for ideas on learning without moving half a world away. Some of the stuff was in general good and inspirational (a weekend in the target language only, or tips on immersion in China that wouldn't cost you an and arm and a leg, those are surely useful to many readers, just like the tip to practice with model exams). But then there are some really weird things there.
https://www.fluentin3months.com/mandarin-chinese-tips/"Speak to the Chinese waiters" is a typical "talk immediately" example of a basic interaction. Nice. But really, how many waiters are eager to waste time babbling with beginner learners, especially outside the TL country? And are you sure the waiter would understand? In the Czech Republic, for example, the Chinese restaurant staff is much more likely to be Vietnamese.
And in the US, I would guess lots of the people could be of Chinese heritage, but not actively speaking the language anymore.
"Teach what you already know" made me cringe.
After hours of frustrating work, I remembered a piece of advice given to me by one of my old high school teachers: “Learn what you are doing as if you are going to teach it.”
Sure, we all have probably sometimes studied by explaining the stuff to our pets, plants, younger siblings, teddy bears, imaginary friends, or anyone/anything else without an option to run away (my boyfriend fell asleep after only 15 minutes of neurosurgery explanations, perhaps earlier but it took me a while to find out. That counts like fleeing too, but I continued for a longer while anyways
). That works fine. Learning AS IF we were to teach it. But really, I definitely wouldn't dare to do this:
head on over to italki and reach out to a couple of language buddies that are a little newer to learning Mandarin. Offer to teach them pronunciation.
Like, really???!!! Pronunciation?! Mandarin?! Tones?! A beginner teaching it to someone?! To people who can't tell the mistakes apart from the correct pronunciation yet?!
So, experiences like this + Habitica-Firefox addon are nice steps to get me rid of this procrastinational bad habit
We're all cheering you on!